Women from communities which previously shunned FGM have told the Guardian they are being pressurised to undergo the procedure as adults to avoid being ostracised in a country with one of the highest FGM rates in the world.

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Some women from minority groups said they had agreed to FGM because of pressure from their husbands.

“I wished I had been circumcised when I was a child,” said Fatima Abdullah, 35, a mother of two, who was subject to FGM at 31. She said almost all the women of her age and ethnicity had now undergone the procedure, although none had had FGM as children.

Campaigners had hoped that attitudes towards FGM were changing, with some signs of a drop in the number of girls under 14 being cut. But the experience of women such as Abdullah suggests that there is still a lot of work to be done.

Nahid Gabrellah, director of the Seema centre which campaigns against FGM, said the organisation was aware that the practice was spreading to minority groups. “[The women] want to be accepted in the mainstream culture that stigmatises women who were not subjected to FGM,” she said.

“I remember many South Sudanese women who lived in north used to be circumcised as a sign of integration into the mainstream culture, and to feel that they are accepted – even though the FGM was also not part of their culture.”

Alison Parker, the head of communication office at Unicef, said that living in a country with one of the highest FGM rates in the world was bound to have an impact.

“There are strong social norms that influence behaviours of communities,” she said. “Families that would like to acculturate to others around them will adopt their practices to adhere to their identity. This has been the case for some IDPs, refugees and other displaced groups.”

Sudan has the fifth highest FGM rate in the world, according to the latest estimates. The government has spoken out against the practice, and supports the work of groups such as Saleema, but has failed to legislate against it.

A bill that would prohibit FGM and introduce a 10-year prison sentence for parents of girls who die after being cut was introduced to parliament in 2007 but has not been passed into law.